posting for the hell of it...
So let's start with a blank white canvas. Then, a red circle representing player one, and a blue circle for P2, some distance away from each other.
The basic mechanic is that they are constantly firing projectiles directly at each other, about 2 per second all bip-bip-bip-bip-bip or whatnot, and they cancel each other out. If you get hit you lose, of course.
Well, if that was it, it'd be an eternal stalemate, looking vaguely like a beam duel from DBZ or Harry Potter... so let's add the fact that you can fire shots
not aimed directly at the other guy by clicking at an angle away from the "beam". But in doing so, the middle of the "beam" will get closer to you... And anyway, since we haven't added movement mechanics yet there'd be no point to this - so let's make the projectiles always home in on your enemy!
And I do mean
always.
The result is that you can fling shots away from yourself and they will hit your enemy unless he "parries" them with a projectile of his own - which he has to do to not get hit. So the middle of the beam would stabilize again if you both manage to parry each other's attacks.
Much more can be done of course, like adding movement, but at this point I want to ask if it sounds workable... or perhaps like something that already exists?